Congressman John Kline sends letter to colleagues on Peace Corps Military Option

"Though I applaud efforts to encourage national service, I am concerned about the contractual linking of military and civilian volunteer service. National service is essential, but we must be careful not to blur the lines distinguishing military service from service in the Peace Corps."

Letter to House Members On H.R. 3709 The following letter has been sent by Congressman John Kline (R-MN) to his colleagues in the House of Representatives, asking them to support H.R. 3709

Caption: Congressman John Kline (center) meeting with Colonel James Muscatell, Staff Sergeant Jason Tacheny, Major Tim Wollmuth and Major Kurt Rosselit of the 934th Airlift Wing, to discuss issues of troop rotation and reservists employment issues on August 12th, 2004. Photo: Web Site of Congressman John Kline

Congressman Kline served for 25 years in the United States Marine Corps. Part of this included service as a military aide to Presidents Carter and Reagan. He retired from the military at the rank of Colonel.

Dear Colleague:

Since John Kennedy created the Peace Corps in 1961 - guided by a mission to recruit, train and send volunteers overseas for two years of citizen service - more than 170,000 Americans have worked and lived at ground level in more than 137 developing nations.

In this same spirit, Congress created the National Call to Service recruitment program through the FY03 Defense Authorization Act. The goal of this program was to encourage young Americans to volunteer for national service, both military and civilian. The National Call to Service program allows military recruits to count service in the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps toward the eight year commitment required of military personnel.

Though I applaud efforts to encourage national service, I am concerned about the contractual linking of military and civilian volunteer service. National service is essential, but we must be careful not to blur the lines distinguishing military service from service in the Peace Corps.

Many Peace Corps members - past and present - have expressed concern that perceived links between military service and the Peace Corps could jeopardize the safety of Peace Corps Volunteers who provide essential humanitarian service in remote locations.

I encourage you to support H.R. 3709 to alter the National Call to Service Program to remove the Peace Corps as an option for completing an individual's military enlistment requirement, both as a way to protect Peace Corps Volunteers and to differentiate the roles of both Peace Corps Volunteers and our military servicemembers.

If you have questions or wish to co-sponsor, please contact Jeff McNichols (5-2271) in my office.

Sincerely, JOHN KLINE Member of Congress

When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Peace Corps at highest Census in 30 yearsCongratulations to the Peace Corps for the highest number of volunteers in 30 years with 7,810 volunteers serving in 71 posts across the globe. Of course, the President's proposal to double the Peace Corps to 15,000 volunteers made in his State of the Union Address in 2002 is now a long forgotten dream. With deficits in federal spending stretching far off into the future, any substantive increase in the number of volunteers will have to wait for new approaches to funding and for a new administration. Choose your candidate and start working for him or her now.

Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in dangerWhen the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject.

'Celebration of Service' a major successThe Peace Corps Fund's 'Celebration of Service' on September 29 in New York City was a major success raising approximately $100,000 for third goal activities. In the photo are Maureen Orth (Colombia); John Coyne (Ethiopia) Co-founder of the Peace Corps Fund; Caroline Kennedy; Barbara Anne Ferris (Morocco) Co-founder; Former Senator Harris Wofford, member of the Advisory Board. Read the story here.

PC apologizes for the "Kasama incident"The District Commissioner for the Kasama District in Zambia issued a statement banning Peace Corps activities for ‘grave’ social misconduct and unruly behavior for an incident that occurred on September 24 involving 13 PCVs. Peace Corps said that some of the information put out about the incident was "inflammatory and false." On October 12, Country Director Davy Morris met with community leaders and apologized for the incident. All PCVs involved have been reprimanded, three are returning home, and a ban in the district has since been lifted.

The Peace Corps LibraryPeace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related stories in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can find hundreds of stories about what RPCVs with your same interests or from your Country of Service are doing today. If you have a web site, support the "Peace Corps Library" and link to it today.

Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

Read the stories and leave your comments.

Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

Story Source: NPCA

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Military; Congress; Legislation

PCOL2362266

Add a Message

This is a public posting area. Enter your username and password if you have an account. Otherwise, enter your full name as your username and leave the password blank. Your e-mail address is optional.